The Big Event

April 14, 2012

The Big Event is a day of service with a simple message to the community - thank you.

It originated at Texas A&M in 1982 and the Big Event has since spread to campuses across the country. It is now one of the largest student-led service projects in the nation. The purpose of the Big Event is to give back to the community, to thank local residents for their support throughout the year.

Service projects for the Big Event include helping neighbors with yard work and other home projects, as well as helping local community service organizations. This year, Hampden-Sydney gave a huge thank you to the local community through the Big Event! 166 volunteers (mostly students, but also some faculty, staff, and family members) worked on 21 service projects across Prince Edward County. This was a major increase over last year, when we had 110 volunteers working on 13 projects.

Many thanks go to: the rugby team, the football team, Circle K, the student government, several fraternities (Theta Chi, Chi Phi, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Nu), the Adventure Crew, MSU, TAC, the SHARC club, several RA groups, and a number of individual students.

Thanks are already coming in from many local organizations for all the great work. Here's a quick look at what got done:

At FACES food pantry, food was distributed to several hundred families.

At the SPCA, the outdoor kennels had fresh gravel spread.

New plants were put in at the YMCA.

College Church had mulch spread and the grounds cleaned up.

At White Bird Appaloosa Horse Rescue, a horse paddock was finished and horse trailers were sanded and

In Farmville, several shopping center areas, town parks, and children's play areas were cleaned.

Streetlights were cleaned at the Woodlands retirement community.

Roadways in Prince Edward were cleaned.

At Habitat sites, a deconstruction project was done, as well as some brush clearing.

Several local residents had planting done, a deck stained, a gravel driveway spread, and other tasks they needed help with.

Funds were raised for a service dog for Colin Werth, and many happy dogs got a nice walk.